12 MISC. PUBLICATION 7, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



we could do to save the wheat. Fortunately, however, there is one 

 thin<; we can do. We can control the rust in the Northern States 

 hy (lcsti()yin»r the common barberry. 



Farmers in Enjjland and in certain countries of continental Europe 

 started the H^dit a«;ainst the barberry many years a«ro. Some of them 

 saw tiiat wiien the winds blew across the barberry hedj^es and then 

 over their jrrainfields the jjrain on that side of the hedge would be 

 blighted with rust. So they dug out the hedges and watched their 

 grain, and found, in the following year, that the jdants were healthy 

 and the kernels i)lump and sound. But taking out hedges was not 

 enough to cure some fields, because most of the rich landlords hatl 

 bail)erry busjies in their grounds and the grain nearest such ))ushes 

 would be blighted when the weather was warm and moist. The farm- 

 ers asked the landlords to dig out their barberry bushes, and some of 

 the landlords did: but others thought it a silly notion that a barberry 

 bush could harm a grainfield, so they refused. Then the farmers 

 went away angry and came back again in the dark with axes and 

 choppetl out the barberry bushes, or they brought kettles of scalding 

 water ami killed them that way. They weie despeiate because they 

 and their families would starve if they could not grow good grain. 



It was a bitter and angry sort of light because no one understood 

 just what the cause of the trouble was. The farmers found that they 

 could not grow good grain near barberry bushes, but they did not 

 know why. So they tried to think of a reason. Some of them said 

 that the barberry blossoms blighted the wheat. Others said the breath 

 of the bushes spoiled their grain. Such exi)lanations seemed silly 

 to people who liked the barberry bushes. Of course you know that 

 was in the days when people were very ignorant about the growth 

 and habits of plants. But they were not dull. They knew by watch- 

 ing and t lying that grain would be spoiled if barberry bushes were 

 growing near, and that if they took away the barberries they could 

 have good grain. So they kept fighting the barberry (and some- 

 times the men who planted it) even when they were laughed at. 



As the knowledge of science increased, the plant doctors began to 

 study the cluster-cup rust on the barberry to see if it really could have 

 anything to do with the rust that looked so dill'erent on the wheat. 

 Anil so it happens now that no one laughs at those sturdy oltl farmers 

 for insisting that the barberry was to blame for the rusted grain 

 crops. For, when the scientists found why the barberry was a bad 

 neighbor for a wheat field, as you learned at the beginning of this 

 story, they were ready to stand by the farmers and join the war 

 against the barberries. 



Nowadays there is no mystery about the barberry story. We know 

 that the spores from the cluster cujjs on the barberry bushes blow for 

 miles across the grainfields. doing dreadful damage all the way. 

 And knowing this, we know, of course, how to i)revent such damage. 

 To cure the wheat of black stem rust in all parts of the world 

 where the winters are cold enough to kill the summer or red stage 

 of the rust, the only thing that need be done is to get rid of the bar- 

 berry' bushes on which the cluster cups grow in the spring. That 

 is exactly what the farmers in England did years ago. More recently, 

 that is what the people of Denmark an<l some other European <'oun- 

 tries have done. And everywhere the result is the same: No bar- 

 berry bushes and good crops of grain ! 



